


I Loved You Once In Silence

by KeeperofSeeds



Category: Marvel (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Comment Fic, Community: comment_fic, Courtly Love, Declarations Of Love, F/M, Kings & Queens, Knights - Freeform, Love Confessions, Marvel Universe, Multi, Not Beta Read, Pre-Threesome, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-10-29 12:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10853790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeeperofSeeds/pseuds/KeeperofSeeds
Summary: Falling in love with your king's intended wife is wrong, but King Tony was going to marry the most gorgeous woman in all the kingdom.





	I Loved You Once In Silence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zarabithia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/gifts).



> If you couldn't tell by the title (which is from the musical Camelot) this fic is heavily inspired by Camelot and the idea of Arthur/Guenevere /Lancelot, BUT WITH A HAPPY ENDING!  
> This prompt was sitting in my WIP folder for ages but my community theatre put on Camelot recently and BOOM: inspiration.

Falling in love with your king's intended wife is wrong, Steven knows this. He never meant for it to happen. Nevertheless, he’d slowly became enamored of the soon to be Queen. Walking with the pair, eyes on the horizon, watching for danger, he overheard many a quiet conversation. He learned of the Lady's appreciation for art, of her love of sea. He smothered a smile at his King's confusion as the Lady tried to explain the symbolism stitched into the designs on her robes. Nights spent on guard duty outside his King's chambers made him flush red as laughter mixed with moans slipped through the wooden door. Early morning smiles and probing questions from the Lady as he helped saddle her horse, while their King slept on unaware.

Little moments gathered and held close to his heart. Until the time came that he could no longer deny his feelings as the love and loyalty that would fall under his role as the King’s confidant.  
  
The lady who had ensnared both the King's and later, Sir Steven’s, heart was the Lady Virginia. And she was surely the most beautiful woman in all the kingdom. Her fierce wit had captivated the King and their courtship had lead to much relief and rejoicing from a Kingdom who feared their solitarily King would never find someone to rule beside him. The Lady was everything they had hoped for. Beautiful beyond measure yes, but also kind and fiercely passionate. She quickly won the people’s love.  

Steven Rogers was a Knight of the Realm under King Anthony.  One of the Kings most trusted men. He too was glad to see his King find love. The Lady Virginia was everything he could have hoped for his King. They were well matched. She was a steadying presence beside the King, reigning in his more impulsive tendencies, reminding him to see small details he might forget in his overall vision.

Sir Steven had served the King many years and seen many a lovely lady cast eyes at his King with a longing for romance or even a yearning for power. The King was not shy about spending a night or two in a lady’s company but never had he found one he deemed worthy enough to stay by his side. Steven had walked the kingdom’s fort walls with the King many a time and listened to his hopes and plans for the future. His King spun words into golden tales of a utopia. Gesturing wildly at the land over the walls he told grand tales of self sufficient cities, wondrous new technology, and a time when battles were few and far between, and peace was enjoyed between the kingdoms.

It was beautiful. And Steven was proud to serve a man with such grand ideas and such a great heart filled with trust in his people to make his plans come to life.

Steven was loyal to his King and had been since he first became a Knight.

So why then could Steven not stop thinking of betraying his King’s trust?

 

 When sitting in the dining hall Steven would catch his eye wandering. Tracing the pale curve of the Lady’s throat as she laughed at something whispered from one of her ladies in waiting. The way candle light brought out the red in her hair; the curve of her breast visible in the lay of the deep blue fabric of her dress, the spark of gold as she tilted her goblet back. He was overwhelmed by the way she seemed to collect colors to herself. Radiant and full of life she seemed, and his eyes were drawn back to her again and again. It was no surprise that she senses his gaze eventually.

Steve assures himself that she cannot know his innermost thoughts and smiles across the distance at his soon to be Queen. She returns the smile and raises her glass in a private toast to him. He feels his cheeks burn and averts his eyes. The King’s Archer, who is sitting across from Steven catching his blush and loudly starts a guessing game with the other knights at their table as to which maiden could possibly have caught his eye to make him blush so.

“T’is the wine,” he tries to claim but the Archer just laughs.

“I know that look,” the Archer claims. “and I also know you Steven! You can hold your wine better than that!” He goes back to his guessing game. Pointing out women around the hall, guessing aloud which of their physically charms must have caught his eye, occasionally throwing in a lewd gesture or wink, much to the table’s amusement.

 The Archer is a jovial sort and though his teasing can be merciless, Steven knows he means it all in good fun. Tonight, however, he is in no mood to deal with such jokes. Not when his mind is still in such turmoil. Steven quickly excuses himself, their laughter and calls for more wine follow his retreat.

Squeezing his large frame through the rows of tables lining the dining hall, he slips into a courtyard. The cool evening air and the soft, steady noise coming from the marble fountain that serves as the area’s focus point help calm his nerves. Digging a handkerchief out of a deep pocket Steven dips it into the fountain to help cool his flushed checks. He takes a seat on the fountain’s edge, carefully avoiding wet stones, he drags the cloth across his forehead cursing his pale complexion for betraying his emotions so easily.

 _Pull yourself together_ he mentally commands.  
  
 How could he stand by his King’s side and proclaim his honor and loyalty for the crown all while lusting after another man’s wife?  And not just any man’s wife. His Queen.  
  
Steve sighs, and feels guilt and shame wash over him like a wave.

Head cradled in his hands, Steven fails to notice when another person slips into the courtyard. The small hand landing on his shoulder makes him flinch back, jumping off his perch on the fountain’s ledge. He is reaching for a weapon instinctively only to realize he left his sword in his room for the feast, and then realizing that the hand belongs to someone who is not a threat.  
  
Well, not in the traditional meaning of the word.

It is the Lady Virginia, alone. Her hands are drawn back in shock and her mouth open with surprise at the strength of his reaction.

Steven’s feels the heat rush back into his cheeks with a vengeance. Embarrassment rising to take the place of shame. Training his body to relax after a campaign always took time. The months spent on a knife’s edge, ready for attack at a moment’s notice became a unfortunate habit. Something ingrained in his body and soul. He needed to be more mindful of his surroundings.

“Sir Steven?” the lady’s hand hovered questioningly in the air near his arm, unsure if her touch would be welcomed yet.

She knew of a soldier’s reactions, how even the most innocent of action could trigger unintentional lashing out. Her own soon to be husband suffered from the affliction on occasion. His years spent leading campaigns left him with many unpleasant memories and though he attempted to shield the worse of them from her she had reassured him that he need not hide his problems nor his scars. They had each other to lean on now. They would support each other, through good times and ill. She had learned many things in the months they had been promised to one another. Through trial and error, discussions with her private maid, and private visit with the city’s best apothecary, she now knew how to wait out the reaction. How to soothe the embarrassment of not being in control of one’s own body. When to speak and when to sit in silence.

 

“Sir Steven?” she questions again.

He lets out a sigh, hands coming away from his face, and she relaxes her hand, letting it rest again on his arm.

“Apologies my Lady, I did not mean to react so harshly.”

His eyes are still firmly fixed on the ground and she frowns. He shouldn’t feel shame over such a reaction.  "There was no harm done" she assures him.

She uses the hand on his arm to gently pull him back towards the fountain.

“Come, Sir Knight. Come and sit by me.”

He resists for only a second before gently sitting back down.

She takes his handkerchief and dips it back in the fountain, wrings it out, and gently dabs at his face.

"There now," she says, and her smile shines as sure as the sun, a gentle warmth brushing over his skin. He finds he cannot look her in the eye for long like this.

"I noticed your eyes on me lately Sir Steven," she says, and he has to hold back another flinch. Apparently there will be no dancing around his slight. He steels his nerves, and raises his eyes, prepared to make an apology, but when he does raise his head he finds that she has slid herself closer on the bench, and they are almost nose to nose.

"It was not unwelcome," she whispers. Her eyes dart down to his lips and up again. He is a red blooded man like any other, and he with one breath he damns himself, leaning forward to take the offered kiss.

It does not last long. Here in the courtyard as they are, it is dangerous enough. Anyone might walk by. He allows himself another breath, inhales the delicate scene of her floral perfume, and leans back to a more appropriate distance.

"I should not have done that," he mutters, but it is already done, and he cannot ignore these feelings any longer.

"My…deepest apologies, my Queen."

She raises an eyebrow.

"Did I not say that your looks were not unwelcome? Have I given any indication that your action just now was not wanted?" She smile, "I assure you Sir Steven, I am more than capable of making my will known."

His returning smile is grim.

"I apologize not for the kiss my lady but for the betrayal it signifies. I have betrayed the trust of my King. I have allowed my feelings to fester and grow, until they now burst forth."

"Would you knowingly allow King Tony to come to harm?" she asks, eyes turning hard in the moonlight.

He turns back to her, raising his chin. "Never. I have sworn my life to him, and also now to you. As long as it is within my power, I will protect him."

"There. You see?" she says. "As long as you stand by your oaths I see no problem here."

"Not all harm is physical my Lady. My actions here would wound him worse than any spear or sword."

She stands, looking down at him. "Would you deny my power here? Deny me accountability? **I** followed after you Sir Steven. Of my own free will I came here, and though I came here to you, my love for my husband is not diminished in any way. Nor is, I suspect, is yours."

She cuts off any protest. "Do not bother to deny it. I am no innocent young maid, ignorant of the world. I am not shocked by your affections."

Her expression grows sly, "Besides, my husband is a most handsome man is he not?"

Steven blushes and the Queen laughs at having succeeded in flustering him. She holds out a hand and draws him to his feet, a strange reversal of norms.

"Come now, Sir Steven! You are normally more than willing to discuss my husband's virtues!"

She threads her hand through his elbow despite his muttering protestations of it not being the same, and walks them across the courtyard to an entrance to the main castle halls.

"Trust in me, Sir Steven. All will be well. I came to this kingdom expecting nothing but sorrow, but instead I find myself surrounded by beauty and friends and love. I will not let it go so easily, now that I have found such things."

She turns to face him at the doorway. Reaching up to draw him down to her, and lays another soft kiss at each corner of his mouth. He closes his eyes and takes her offering, barely daring to breathe.  

"Do not drown yourself in shame sir Knight. Rejoice in this love we have found, and have faith."

 

The rest of the evening passes in a blur. Steven barely remembers returning to his room.

He blames his shakiness the next morning at training on the wine again but it isn't the drink that has him off but the remembered feel of soft lips against his. He can't stop his hand from raising, rubbing over his lips as if they was some stain left behind, some proof  he need hide. He pushes through his distraction and spars until his legs shake and he's dripping with sweat under the rising sun.

He should leave. Request another post.

It’s dangerous to stay. If only a handful of kisses have reduced him to this, dare he imagine what anything more would do?  

It’s dishonest. It’s a betrayal of his King and his oath. Better to leave temptation behind and serve his King from afar.

He is lucky the King's time is occupied with re-enforcing the Southern wall. He doesn't think he could look his sire in the eye without falling to his feet in shame.

Nights spent on guard outside the King's chambers take on a new level of torture. The moans and sounds from within now causing his blood to rise, along with other parts, as he now knows just how soft the Lady Virginia's lips are. His nights off watch are haunted. He wakes with half remembered dreams lingering. Images of himself in the royal chambers, the mischevious glint in his King's eye, the remembered sound of his Queen's gasps filling his mind as he kisses down her belly.  
He wakes with a jolt every time, not sure if he wants the dream to continue or not. He doesn't bother resisting the urge to take himself in hand.

 

However, even with King Tony's head buried in building designs he still had to deal with the Lady Virginia in his duties.

His eyes were still drawn to her, he still followed her steps and saw the way she drew color and joy to her. He saw it in the apple slices she'd bring down to her horse before her morning ride, in the flash of teeth as she smiled at some comment her lady in waiting made… and in the way her eyes twinkled when they looked at him.  

She didn't push him for more, but he hears her love in the way she says his name now. The way she sometimes lets her touch linger a moment longer than would be proper while he accompanies her to the stables.

Guilt eats at him.

He prays. His knees ache on the stone floor of his room or the wooden beams of the chapel but the gentle coo of birds is the only thing he hears.

He prays, and he prays and he prays.

He cannot hear an answer, and so he waits. His fate is in God's and his King's hands now.

  
The move is Lady Virginia's.  

 

His days fall back into familiar patterns once he accepts that.

 

Things proceed as normal, and he does his best to concentrate on his duties, until one day the Southern wall is finally finished. The King's re-enforcements complete. He sends word for Steve to meet him before the morning meal the next day.

Despite the low undercurrent of leftover worry, Steve finds himself anticipating the meeting. He's missed hearing the man tell him a million small details of his projects, misses looking out over the Kingdom and seeing how far it's come under Tony's legacy. Misses the sight of Tony's hand wildly gesticulating as he lets loose his excitement from beneath his normal Kingly manner.

 

Their walks along the wall are normally informal events, so Steven delays in putting on his armor that morning, electing to meet the king with his leather vest over his looser training clothes.

Tony is already on the wall, looking out over the kingdom when Steven arrives. He cannot see the regular guard at his post and immediately becomes concerned. His Lordship is more than capable of holding his own in a fight, but it is far too easy for a lone archer or fighter to get the upper hand with the King all alone, and so often does he become lost in his own thoughts.

"My Lord?" he calls out, "Why is the watchman not at his post?"

"I sent him away," a voice says. The Lady Virginia pushes away from a spot in the shadows of the inner wall.

"We three have things to talk about," she says, "things that are not for the ears of others."

Steven freezes. She can't mean what he thinks, but what else could it be?

He looks to the King but he hasn't moved.

The Lady continues. "I've spoken to my husband Sir Steven. We stayed up long into the night talking. I believe we've come to an agreement."  

They will send him away. He's going to be exiled. King Tony isn't so cruel he thinks to subject him to a public execution.

His King has finally turned to face them, but still he keeps his distance. They stand apart from one another, and Steven cannot bare to bridge the distance. He fears his guilt would drag him down to the depths below.

Still his King says nothing. Even as the silence stretches.

It's almost worse than the anger he'd expected.

Tony's normally expressive face is closed off to him. His brain stumbles over words, excuses, or reasonings to explain his behavior but before they reach his mouth he bites them back. He has no excuses for his actions. He cannot seek forgiveness for what is in his heart.

He will accept his King's judgment.

Steven takes another step towards the King and falls to one knee, his head bowed. He slowly reaches into his boot and draws out the dagger concealed there. He holds it out, handle first.

It is his King's right, as ruler and as a man slighted. 

 

Tony's hand closes over the dagger, and Steve sees the royal seal on his ring flash in the rising sun. A fitting last sight. He closes his eyes, braces himself against the strike, only to hear the ring of metal on stone as his King flung the dagger aside.

Tony kneels before him and raises his chin, rough fingers gentle on his face. "Have you not seen how I have looked at you all these years Steven? You've been at my side through so many trials. I have no wish to send you away."

Steven gapes. This…this is wrong. The King kneels to no one, least of all him! He should be angry. He'd prepared for his fury, not…whatever this is.  
Tony reaches out  further and runs two finger down his jaw, feeling the smoothness of his morning shave before tracing softly over his parted lips. Steven feels as if the lightest breeze would knock him over.

"Would you join with us Sir Steven?" he asks.

Steve glances aside to his Queen who smiles down at them.

"This is not a dream?" he asks.

She shakes her head, laughing lightly. "Nay Sir Steven. It is real. The choice is yours."

He turns again to meet the blue eyes of his King. Tony is waiting, with far more patience than Steve is used to. He looks magnificent in the dawn's light, even stripped of most of his ornamentation. Steve reaches out and lets himself touch. Feels the warmth of his King, solid and smiling under his hand and he wraps a careful hand around the back of his neck. Then he leans forward and breathes his answer onto parted lips.

"Yes."

The press of chapped lips against his is sweeter than any wine in the castle. The addition of thin hands coming to trace down the muscles of his back only magnifies his joy.

He pulls back, gasping a breath, only to then bury his face in the space between Tony's shoulder and neck. He feels the peck of lips on his head and then his Queen presses closer against him to whisper, "I told you to have faith Steven. Now, come to bed." Steven allows himself to be pulled through the corridors, his heart soaring in relief and joy, and overflowing with love.

It's going to be a beautiful day.  

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the prompt:
> 
> Marvel, Steve Rogers/Pepper Potts [falling in love with your king's intended wife is wrong, but King Tony was going to marry the most gorgeous woman in all the kingdom](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/175843.html?thread=37959907)


End file.
